Merry Mousiemas!

Mousie enjoys the winter holiday season as much as the next penguin. Wintertime brings winter, of course, which is the season of scarves and hats and evergreen trees and penguins and twinkly lights and snow and hot chocolate and sweaters and fluffy down comforters. Mousie has to be careful in the winter, lest his whiskers and the tips of his ears and paws freeze. Penguins have no such worries, though that doesn't prevent their enjoyment of a warm scarf, warm blanket, or warm friend. May you have many warm friends this winter, this year, and every year.A Happy Happy to you from Mousie, Pietro, and the whole family of travelling friends.

When you give a mouse a kitty...

This is Pekoe. Pekoe is a goofball. Pekoe is an acrobat. Pekoe is a conversationalist. Pekoe is shameless. Pekoe is hungry. Pekoe is a fool.

Pekoe is also a cat.

Mousie likes Pekoe because Pekoe is warm and soft and fuzzy and silly. And Pekoe likes Mousie, though that might just be because Mousie has a twitchy little tail...

The Cookiemousie.

A public service message: Never turn your back on your cookie, or the Cookiemousie will eat it! This would be a special tragedy if it happened to be a cookie like this one - fresh from the oven and truly miraculous. It was puffy, chewy, gooey, crispy, salty, sweet, chocolaty, nutty, crunchy, munchy, scrunchy, and grunchy all at once. Mousie considered himself honored to be in its presence, secretly wanting everyone to look away so his inner cookiemousie could gobble it up!

Travelling Friends

You probably already know that Mousie likes to travel. It's one of the great advantages accorded to the pocket-sized in the world. But as wonderful as it is, travelling can also be stressful and lonely. Mousie often travels with Flippers and Basil because it is more fun to share the travelling experience with friends, but Mousie can get squeaky, Flippers is sometimes prickly, and Basil can be a bit of a bear, as is frankly true with everyone at some point or other. That's what makes it so awesome to meet other new travelling friends. They have colorful stories of all sorts of adventures and each one brings a slightly new perspective on the world.

Taylor the Toucan is a particularly colorful character. Well travelled, too, with a goofy sense of humour. Taylor is a little too big for most pockets so usually travels via backpack. Of most interest to Mousie and the gang, however, was Taylor's enormous nose - it's HUGE! Mousie thinks he might be related to Taylor's nose - he thinks Taylor might be a Jewcan.

On the same trip where the gang met Taylor, they were also introduced to a somewhat more mysterious character who goes by the pointedly opaque name of "The Pig." Whatever the reality of Le Pig's missions of international espionage, he was very friendly and personable. While only vaguely communicative about his travels, Herr Pig has clearly covered much of the globe and developed many interesting relationships in far-off places. Pig-san was not as silly as Mousie, but preferred Basil's reserved and quiet gentility. Sheik al-Pig clearly enjoys his globetrotting, but equally enjoyed the relaxation of not having to work so hard at being Intenational Pig of Mystery but rather, simply his piggy self. I think we'll be seeing more of him - maybe once he's become International Pig of Leisure.

Here Be Dragons!

Mousie meets the most unusual creatures in the most unlikely places, though he says that you only have to look at the world the right way to see all sorts of amazing things. Take this dragon, for example. Mousie went for a scamper on the beach and came upon this GIGANTIC dragon, lolling about in the surf. In this picture the dragon looks tiny, but that's because it is so far away. Mousie did go right up to say hello - the dragon was quite friendly and rather quiet and shy, with lots of birds relaxing on its huge back - but didn't take a picture because the dragon was so big even one nostril would have been too big for the photograph! Don't tell the dragon, but Mousie thought it was rather fat. Just look at that huge body! I wonder what this particular dragon eats?

Honey Bear

Basil finds friends everywhere! Some are more cuddly than others, but he hugs them one and all.

A Mouse for Mousie.

Mouses are everywhere! There are city mouses and field mouses, sewer mouses (eeew...) and jungle mouses, door mouses and church mouses, and sugar mouses, marzipan mouses and chocolate mouses! Mmmm, chocolate mouses! Mousie had never met a chocolate mouse until he went to Burdick's in Boston. There he came nose-to-whiskers with tiny chocolate mouses galore! (...as well as a delightfully cheeky little penguin...but that's a different story.) A little white mouse with almond ears and a purple tail wanted to follow Mousie on mini-mouse-ventures. He looked up to Mousie and tickled Mousie and wrestled with Mousie, and Mousie was very happy to have a mousy friend (he has so many friends of other fuzzy species already, but no other mouses...) But unfortunately, this story has a plaid ending: mini-mousie melted!

Is a Mouse a Type of Fruit?

Autumn is harvest time, when all creatures - large as a house or small as a mousie - enjoy Mother Nature's fruits to the fullest. Sometimes the fruits are so good it is hard to stop eating them. Sometimes they're so fantastically delicious that we just want to become them so we, too, might be so plump, juicy and radiant, and praised, admired, and desired.

Mousie went on a harvest this weekend. Admittedly, he had some help - the fruits were not just amazing, they were bigger than him! For as much as a house-mousie as he may be, Mousie does so enjoy scampering up and down trees - balancing on tiny branches, being tickled by leaves, and chattering with the goofy and perplexing ants. And the trees are so full of deliciousness! Enough to feed Mousie silly for years! But the fruit is also so very pretty, resplendent in the colors of ripeness and sweetness. Even though the day was chilly and grey, Mousie felt warm and cozy when he found this Ginger Gold apple. But when Mousie found a tree full of peaches, he went just a little nutty (which certainly amused the squirrels...) There were so many peaches! And they were so ripe and fuzzy and glowing! Just look at this one:And then Mousie found a branch of peaches that seemed to have something missing. Or rather, this particular branch seemed to be waiting for something. And, in this moment, Mousie lived the dream. He became, if only for a moment, a peach - fuzzy and wonderful and totally happy.

Summer Hugs

Summer is the season for many things. Most especially it is the season for frolicking outside and eating outside and being silly outside. The important word here would rightly seem to be "outside." Going on adventures to seek friends and smells and treasure of all kinds, outside. Summer is Mousie's favorite time of year, along with autumn, winter, and spring, but we'll get to those in due course. For now, let's talk about summer.

What does summer bring?

No, I'm not talking about bugs or thunderstorms or sweltering heat - these only happen occasionally and usually can be avoided, especially by a resourceful mouse.

Foods? Mmmmm - fresh peaches and cherries and melons and nectarines and blueberries and strawberries! Oooo, strawberries - they even taste like summer, which really actually tastes like cotton candy. Mousie loves strawberries. They're just the right size to hug! So Mousie went on an adventure and found the perfect gem of a strawberry, hidden in what else but a leafy strawberry bush. And he hugged it.

Mousecafé

One of Mousie's favorite things is to sit in a café, watching the world go by, nibbling a sugar crystal or a crumb of cheese or some crusty bread - or sometimes indulging his secret love of coffee. Mousie has to be a bit careful with coffee because a caffeinated mouse is a very crazy thing, indeed, and Mousie doesn't want to scare the other guests at the café (who are often very surprised and amused to see Mousie at the café in the first place) and does want to be able to sleep at night! So he gets the smallest coffee he can find, which is invariably espresso and also invariably still much too big! It also has the benefit of coming in a mouse-sized cup that Mousie can hug if the weather turns a little chilly. Mousie likes that coffee is all of the things he is not - it is big and dark and aggressive and abrasive, smoky and hot, a little intimidating, and an acquired taste. It gives him courage to tackle the rest of the day.

Reuben the Sandwich

True to form, Mousie went out one day and found another giant food. In fact, it turned out to be another sandwich. (Mousie has started to wonder whether to be a sandwich one must also be HUGE...) This sandwich's name was Reuben. And Reuben is a truly beautiful sandwich - warm and juicy, crispy where important and delicate and plush where delicious. Reuben's only problem is being simply too big. And wherever Reuben goes, the potato salad, pickle, and cookie follow. Mousie was overwhelmed. And then very very full. And then very happy and very sleepy! Mousie thinks that once a year is about the most often he could ever visit the house of Reuben, despite wishing he could go every week!

Mousie's Wheel

Mousie gets lots of exercise scampering around the neighborhood and the planet so he has no need for a typical "hamster wheel." (Hamsters, unlike Mousie, are generally lazy and need the exercise.) Instead, Mousie likes to use a different kind of wheel when he goes on adventures with Sven the Volvo. Sven is friendly and capacious and comfortable and likes being tickled by Mousie's little paws as Mousie points him in the right direction. And when Mousie gets tired he can curl up and let autopilot take over, safe and comfy in the knowledge that Sven will carry him safely to the stars and back.

Sandy Mouse

Mousie is often skeptical of the supposed pleasures of going to the beach. For so small a mouse it is so far across the hot, rough sand to the water - even on the narrowest beach! And once he gets to the water he usually realizes he doesn't particularly like being wet and even the smallest waves send him soaked and sprawling. And his fuzz gets matted and he has to go take a bath to feel himself again... As if these issues weren't challenging enough, there is the ever-present seagull problem. They think Mousie looks like a tasty mouse - an understandable mistake given their severely limited intelligence and extreme, indiscriminate gluttony!

So right now you're thinking, "Why would Mousie, or I, for that matter, ever go to the beach?!" Your reasoning is your own, but in Mousie's case he indulges his love of basking in the tropical sun by taking full advantage of his own portability and the protective presence of larger benevolent creatures known as humans - strange as they may be. In short, he hitches a ride, comme d'habitude.

Is this Paris?

Mousie and Flippers found themselves in Paris on a very particular, peculiar day. It seems the Champs Elysees was turned from a boulevard roaring with cars and trucks into a colossal garden, full of things green and growing. There were forests and lawns, rows of peas and squash, and even a mouse-sized beach of sea salt. This being France, the first thing Flippers found was lavender - wonderful wonderful lavender. He had trouble staying awake after this photograph was taken:Mousie then found an olive tree. It was only a little olive tree but Mousie is only a little mousie so it was very big for him. He liked climbing it because he could finally see above the heads of the millions of people coming to see the new Paris park.And then he found some tomatoes. This was starting to make him a very hungry mouse - all of the perfect ingredients for a fabulous salad. Unfortunately nothing was quite ripe so Mousie had to be content with feeding his imagination...Then Flippers found something entirely unexpected - family! As is a well known fact, all spikey things are, of course, related. Since Flippers and pineapple are both also very sweet, they are, in fact, close cousins. It was a joyous reunion.Finally Mousie found his own private spa - a square meter of pure and natural French grey sea salt from Normandy. But the sun was very strong and Mouise quickly became thirsty so he and Flippers went off in search of water and instead found break-dancers. Now Mousie wants to learn how to break-dance.

Across the world and off again!

Mousie's backpacking trip with Basil the Bear went to Africa! Land of hippopotamouses and mousephants and wildemouses and rhinocermouses and the mousepanzee. Mousie so dearly wanted to see these amazing creatures, but alas, it was the dry season and Mousie was in the Gambia. There were lots of goats, and some cows, and chickens and donkeys, and one friendly baby antelope, but mostly what there was was a surfeit of peanuts. Mousie likes peanuts, but only so much. They are a distant relative, after all - Mousie has sometimes been classified as a nut. But back to the point, few beasts. There were also some birds, but most of them would have liked to eat Mouise so he stayed far away from them. (The day the vultures visited the village Mouise stayed curled up inside his sack inside his bag inside the backpack...)

So Mousie had to find amazing things to do, and boy were there amazing things to do! Lots of people calling him "Mousebab!" and wanting to know his name and wanting five Dalasi, but how Mousie could carry five Dalasi nobody knows. Lots of really noisy and bouncy and old and very large (for a mouse, not a person) buses to ride to other places. The mysterious, but delicious, Tapalapa and the Niebbe Sandwich (distant cousin of the muffaletta.) Lots of dusty paths to walk... There was no end to Mousie's scampering about. He even got some fabric and found a tailor to make him a mouse-sized Gambian shirt.Actually, Mousie is about to get dusty all over again, so he has postponed his bath until after he returns from his next adventure (on which he might visit a very old wall while avoiding crafty sand dunes and may meet a leprechaun who will give him a thimbleful of uisce beatha.)

Abaraka bake, shalom, and slainte.

Beasties and Beasties and Beasties, Oh My!

In Mousie's line of work he meets all manner of strange and fanciful and amazing creatures. Some of these creatures are big and scary and prickly, others are fuzzy and slobbery, and yet others are jolly and friendly and endearingly odd. Mousie met this creature, and many cousins, on a little trip across the water. Mousie and the Beastie immediately became fast friends. They both have pot bellies, they both have wings (well Mousie also uses his to hear things), and they both like to sit around watching the world and smirking at it and whispering to each other about it. Unfortunately, the Beastie lives a bit far away, but one of his cousins has come to live with Mousie - a cousin who loves to pass the time eating plums while contemplating the mysteries of the universe.

Good Morning!

Mousie likes to sleep. Well really, Mousie likes lounging around in bed, especially in the morning. He can stay in bed all day - sometimes hiding completely under the covers, sometimes with just a nose or paw poking out. Sometimes he rolls around, tying the sheets in a gigantic bow. And then he stretches, squeaks "Good morning!" and starts another adventuresome day.

Mr. Mousie Goes to Washington

A capital city for a capital mouse! Mousie was very excited to visit Washington. He was especially thankful that visitors of all shapes and sizes are welcome on the National Mall and around the Capitol building itself. Unfortunately, he could not find a Mousie-sized American flag to wave - surprisingly, it seems mouse-sized visitors are not very common. The capitol is very large. In the picture, Mousie is very far from the Capitol and still looks very very small. Mousie wants to go back to Washington to visit his ancestors in the Natural History Museum, but he will have to be very brave because he is smaller than the toes of the giant dinosaurs who live next door. It was cold when Mousie visited Washington the first time, which is why he is all hunched up and his ears are folded down, so he hopes his next trip will be in the springtime. (Mousie went to Washington before Basil the Bear gave him that wonderfully warm plaid jumper...)

Mousie Makes a New Friend

Mousie went to Canada. In the springtime woods he met a bear who gave him a very warm jumper with a maple leaf on it. Mousie will proudly wear the maple leaf and plaid as the emblem of the consumate adventurer and backpacker. In Mousie's case, backpacking means he goes in the backpack. The best part? Basil the Bear has decided he needs a holiday. He's going backpacking, too!